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MT Masterclass: Focus Groups

- What are they?

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Published: 01 Apr 2008

Last Updated: 31 Aug 2010

Gather round, everyone. Form a circle. Here's the low-down on the
state-of-the-art way of finding out what people think. The idea is to
take a group of people - they may be randomly selected, or chosen to
represent a specific sub-set of society. You then ask them open
questions to find out what they think, nudging but never steering the
conversation. This technique can be used to develop an economic policy
or to test new flavours of yoghurt - it's that flexible. But it's also
that fragile. In the wrong hands, focus groups can produce wildly
misleading results. Tony Blair's 'demon eyes', anyone? That brilliant
campaign idea emerged from a Tory focus group in 1997.

- Where did they come from?

They appeared in the second world war. Sociologists were asked to find
out how well the US military's propaganda films were going down with the
general public. Through a process of trial and error, they found that
questioning could uncover the hidden views and opinions of private
citizens. Corporations got on board after the war, adapting the idea for
commercial purposes. After Bill Clinton's stunning success in 1992,
aided by his focus groups, politicians started to use them too.

- Where are they going?

Focus groups remain popular, despite their flaws. Politicians are now
obsessed with them. Ever wondered why so many political slogans and
policies sound the same? They've been focus-group-tested to death. But
sometimes business and political leaders have to be brave enough to tell
the world what they think, rather than trying everything out first. Even
Tony Blair, a well-known focus-group addict, once told colleagues to go
and 'refocus your focus groups' when they didn't come back with the
answer he'd wanted or expected.